Technique

Overview

Tennis technique encompasses everything from strokes, to footwork, to biomechanics, to controlling the spin, trajectory, and speed of the ball.

In general terms, you will want to learn to execute these strokes:

1. Groundstrokes
2. Overhead
3. Serve
4. Volleys
5. Return of Serve

But our approach is about getting very specific and granular. And if you go to the bottom of this page you will see a reasonably exhaustive list of strokes, spins, and situations that you will want to be proficient in, in order to be a highly skilled tennis player.

Your challenge, as a student of the game, is to systematically develop all your strokes so when the situation arises in match play that requires a certain reply, such as a sharp crosscourt topspin passing shot which dips below the net, you have this shot in your arsenal, ready to deploy in just this occasion.

Path to Mastery

1. Gain basic proficiency in each lf the strokes above.
2. Focus on repetition and consistency. At a minimum, you should be able to hit ten shots in a row of each of the basic strokes with a conservative target.
3. Work on hitting increasingly narrower targets with varied height and pace.
4. Integrate topspin and backspin into your strokes.
5. Learn the 12 basic footwork patterns.
6. Tackle each of the advanced techniques in the list below.
7. Study the shot combination patterns and practice putting these patterns together in match play situations.

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